Trigger warning: the following article has references to bullying and suicide. Please avoid reading if you feel distressed by the subject.
On February 15, J.S. Sidharthan, 21, a second-year undergraduate student at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University at Pookode village in Wayanad district of northern Kerala, abruptly left campus. He informed his classmates that he was feeling unwell and wanted to go home to Nedumangad, a town located about 430 kilometres away in Thiruvananthapuram district in the south. But he told his parents that he was coming home to attend two temple festivals. No one knows which of these stories was true.
Sidharthan’s father, T. Jayaprakash, 47, a supervisor at a construction company in Dubai, recalls the conversations that his wife Sheeba had with their son. “When Sheeba called him, Sidharthan had reached Ernakulam (in central Kerala). But then he suddenly told her that he was returning to Pookode as he had to submit a certificate. He went back to university the next day,” he says.
